The purpose of this paper is to extend the understanding of the drivers of social media in higher education institutions (HEIs) in an emerging economy. This research adopts the Technology Acceptance ...Model but included subjective norm, perceived playfulness, Internet reliability and speed as additional constructs. With these inclusions, the model is appropriate and relevant in explaining users’ adoption and usage behavior of social media. Data from 500 students from public and private HEIs in the Philippines were collected and analyzed. We used a combination of statistical analyses such as the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in analysing the complex relationships between determinants of these technologies. The research demonstrated that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norm, and perceived playfulness (happiness) are robust predictors of usage behavior of students. However, Internet reliability and speed were only significant in (some) public HEIs. This evidence may be explained by the fact that information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure in public HEIs is not a priority or underinvested in developing countries. On the other hand, the analysis between public and private HEIs undertaken here extends our understanding towards the different behaviors of users. The findings, though preliminary, suggest that private HEIs should initiate or continue the use of social media in classrooms, because intention to use translate to actual use of these tools. Public institutions, however, should improve Internet reliability and speed and should reassess their use of social media in order to fully take advantage of the benefits of ICT.
This article investigates the reasons that trigger students to access social media, the challenges faced and what needs to be done to ensure that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can adopt the ...use of social media in learning. This study uses a narrative cross-sectional survey conducted using qualitative data collection techniques based on interviews with students and lecturers from Makerere University. Results suggest that students access social media to get updates around the world, carry out research, entertainment, carry out business, peer pressure, keep up with friends and avoid bad habits. Also, our study identified challenges such as unnecessary information, expensive data, delays in giving feedback, limited skills, slow internet connections, miss conduct of users, inability to own gadgets and negative attitude hindering effective adoption of social media for learning. Results further suggest various measures on how social media can be integrated in learning. This study indicates that more research is needed into the methods and implications of increased social media learning in Uganda.
The environmental and climate crisis is gaining priority among critical human concerns; therefore, environmental knowledge and sustainable solutions play a significant role and gaining global ...popularity as an academic discipline. Additionally, United Nations Sustainable Development Goal no. 4 acknowledges education's role in promoting sustainable development, sustainable lifestyles, human rights, social responsibility, circular economy, and greening our economy and society. In this paper new conceptual framework that focuses on systematically analyzing environmental sustainability integration in study programs and subjects is developed. The main aim is to reflect the conceptual basis of education related to environmental sustainability topics such as sustainable development, social responsibility, circular economy, ecology, environmental protection, and greening to boost future environmental management practices in industry and services. Defining the level of integration of environmental and sustainability-related topics is divided by research field classification and study cycles (BSc, MSc, PhD). The specific added value of the developed conceptual framework is reflected by defining cross-sections and inter-and trans-disciplinary of sustainability topics integrated within specific programs and subjects. The conceptual framework was tested by assessing 1051 programs in progress in Slovenia. It was revealed that the highest share of study programs has an intermediate level of environmental sustainability with 2–3 subjects (392 study programs). These are represented mainly by integrating environmental protection, ecology, and “greening” but less with circular economy and social responsibility. Significant differences among specific study programs and study fields reflect that young intellectuals will not be equally educated and qualified for future managerial challenges. Master students gain the best insight into core sustainability and environmental topics needed for future environmental managers.
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•Young intellectuals will not be equally educated for future challenges.•Some study fields are more related to environmental and less to sustainability.•90% of study programs integrate at least 1 environmental sustainability subject.•43.2% of programs have relatively low integration of environmental topics.•Focus towards social responsibility and circular economy as EU priorities is needed.
Technology has become a crucial service medium also for higher education institutions (HEIs). Moreover, the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly underscored the relevance of studies on ...e-services. This article analyzes the technological maturity of HEIs in Poland with the obtained results analyzed against the backdrop of the current pandemic. The study considers the overall level of universities’ virtualization, condition of their ICT infrastructure, IT services offered by public universities, and their use of advanced technologies. The results are analyzed in terms of two aspects: (1) the current technological maturity of HEIs in Poland and their ability to offer virtualized public services during the pandemic and (2) the dimensions of technological maturity that universities ought to focus on with a view to preventing the deterioration of e-services and their quality. Based on the above, recommendations are formulated in terms of improving flexibility to cope with the challenges of this difficult period.
Education for sustainable development in universities provides the university’s community (i.e. students, administrative and academic staff) with the skills and capabilities needed to contribute to ...the achievement of sustainable development. Education for sustainable development has been introduced into curricula, research, outreach activities and campus operations. Several tools exist nowadays to assess this incorporation. Most of them are focused on the environmental aspect of campus operations and within academic issues but do not consider the entire system. This research aimed to propose an integration of sustainability throughout the university as a system, considering existing tools and frameworks, and proving the theoretical proposal in an empirical context. Thus, this paper focuses on sustainability from a whole-institution perspective, analysing the university as a system conformed of two subsystems, the academic and the administrative. The research used a sequential, mixed-method. The quantitative phase undertook a literature review using bibliometric and content analysis, followed by a qualitative phase using the thematic analysis method to develop the University Sustainability concept. The University Sustainability analysis integrated education for sustainable development aspects for the academic subsystem and the corporate sustainability paradigm for the administrative subsystem. Consequently, a sustainability measurement scale for the University Sustainability concept was developed and proved using the exploratory factor analysis. The survey was applied to directors, academic and administrative staff, and under and post-graduate students of two private universities located in Medellin, Colombia. A total of 1799 useable responses were collected and analysed with SPSS software. The analysis’ outcome exposed all factors loaded above 0.40, and overall, the alpha coefficient was 0.930. Results revealed the reliability and validity of the instrument. Hence, the University Sustainability concept was validated, and its measurement scale is suitable to be used in assessing the sustainability of universities holistically. The evidence from the studied universities shows the relevance of corporate sustainability and social issues in the developed University Sustainability concept.
•University sustainability considered the academic and administrative subsystems.•Administrative subsystem was highly related with corporate sustainability.•Academic subsystem embraced education for sustainable development in higher education.•High reliability measurement scale assesses holistically sustainability in universities.
One of the pressing problems of the current time is the digital inequalities caused by the population's lack of technological knowledge and the accelerated technological transformation. These ...inequalities are increasing as the need for training for digital inclusion of the adult population. Concerned about the digital inequality of our region's adult population, Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão do Politécnico do Porto introduced an initiative, denoted Capacid@de Digital. This initiative helps to capacitate the adult population with the use of technology through a series of training actions. These training actions are guaranteed by students integrated into the institution volunteer network and supervised by the academic staff. The challenge proposed to our students allows them to gain a new set of competencies that would be otherwise hard to obtain at this point in their academic paths. In this paper, presents the characterization of the digital illiteracy of one the municipalities of the Portuguese region Tâmega e Sousa, namely Baião.
The strong association between educators’ perceptions and teaching approaches must be considered when improving teaching quality in BL environments in higher education institutions (HEIs). ...Consequently, every effort to effectively initiate and implement instructional innovations and practices at the higher education level is highly dependent on educators’ perceptions, attitudes, characteristics, and approaches. However, there have not been many empirical studies to ascertain the relationship between teacher educators’ perceptions of and approaches to teaching in a BL mode. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the connection between educators’ perceptions and approaches to delivering instructions in a BL mode in a developing country. The study used a mixed-methods approach involving 10 participants in the qualitative data collection phase and 71 respondents in the quantitative data gathering phase from one public HEI in Ghana. While a thematic inductive tool was employed to analyze the qualitative data, R-package version 0.88 (2022) was used to analyze the quantitative data. The study’s results revealed a significant relationship between educators’ perceptions and approaches to teaching in a BL context. However, the study found no correlation between educators’ perception or approach and their ages or experiences of teaching in a BL mode. The findings of the study may encourage teachers to adopt a more positive attitude toward providing quality information to students learning in a BL environment.
Combinative distance-based assessment (CODAS) is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method that is based on the Euclidean and Hamming distances of alternatives from the average scores of ...attributes. Spherical fuzzy sets, as the recent extensions of ordinary fuzzy sets, were developed based on Pythagorean and neutrosophic sets and enable decision-makers to express their membership, non-membership, and hesitancy degrees independently and in a larger domain than most other fuzzy extensions. This paper proposes a new interval-valued spherical fuzzy CODAS method and provides extra space for catching the vagueness in the nature of the problem. The feasibility and practicality of the proposed model are illustrated with an application for evaluating the reopening readiness of academic units for campus education in the era of COVID-19. Three decision-makers from a higher education institution evaluate four academic units with respect to five strategic criteria and prioritize them according to their readiness levels for the campus type of education. Sensitivity and comparative analyses, theoretical and practical contributions, limitations, and future research avenues are also presented in the study.
Higher education institutions (HEIs) have been urged to integrate sustainability across all their structural and organizational dimensions. A promising area of research and practice that can help to ...deliver this is organizational change management for sustainability. While this field has received increasing attention over the past decade, a comprehensive assessment is still lacking. Therefore, a systematic quantitative review was carried out to summarize and synthesize the academic literature on organizational change management approaches that aim to holistically embed sustainability in HEIs. Furthermore, this review aims to illustrate what change factors have been observed and how they have been analyzed, and from this highlight implications for practice and pathways for future research. The literature reviewed puts strong emphasis on change processes and human factors, as well as elements of the institutional framework, such as vision and strategy. The findings highlight the value of strategic and reflective actions, the importance of understanding and actively shaping change processes, and that change towards sustainability requires broad stakeholder input and commitment. This review serves as an important reference point for future research and practice.
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